University of Virginia Library

SDS Evaluated

Does SDS really dupe people? It
asks them to consider issues and
come to their own conclusions.
Since we feel the facts are on our
side we feel that if people are
exposed to these realities they will
come to the right conclusions -
and we do have faith in people. Our
major goal, then, is education and
this is what our programs aim at.

Can anyone deny that issues
concerning "justice," "morality,"
and "peace" are issues worth taking
a stand on? Are we to call protests
against racial discrimination and an
undeclared foreign war "crutches"?
Isn't the real issue that those who
are being duped are those who with
a non-critical attitude have grown
complacent and accepting of all
that is told them because they
refuse to question what they consider
authority.

Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi and Martin
Luther king all had their confrontations
with authority - were
they brutal men? Did they not raise
the right questions against unjust
authority? Perhaps gadflies are necessary
in a complex and increasingly
unfeeling society to prevent us
from losing our humanity.

The best charge against an activist
is insincerity, but it has not
been made clear how SDS is insincere.
SDS cannot be duped by its
leaders because it recognizes no
leaders who dictate policy. We act
for what we believe in, not for what
we are told to believe. In a society
that refuses to act against wrongs,
while it admits to recognizing these
wrongs, one can really again ask,
who is being duped?